Page 16 of Savage Enemy

“The Commission won’t tolerate you threatening their golden boy. I don’t know how you got into this house, but you need to leave. Stefano won’t stand for you coming into his home and threatening his wife and his son.”

My father stood and straightened his suit jacket, now several sizes larger. The last ten years had not been kind to him, his health seemed to be failing, and he looked so much older.

He’d always been a large man, tall with broad shoulders, but the muscle that once supported his thick frame now appeared to be fatter than anything else. His strong jaw had also softened, his skin red and blotchy, and his jet-black hair looked unnatural, like he dyed it a lot.

Maybe my father was sick, or had he just let himself go?

My brothers clearly handled all the physically taxing work now, making our father soft. Or had his regular diet of red meat, rich cream sauces, and booze caught up to him?

If he was sick, what would that mean for me? Did he see me as a loose end he wanted to tie up?

No, not a loose end. That thought was all wrong.

Saul Moscatelli had never been the kind of man who cared enough about other people, and that included his children, to worry about the burdens he would leave behind.

If anything, it might make him more reckless, less worried about long-term risk, more focused on short-term rewards.

A dangerous situation for us all.

My father’s arm flew, and the back of his hand smashed against my face hard enough to send me to the floor.

“You forget your place, Valentina.”

Enzo struggled against Aris’s grip and cried out for me.

“Mama! Mama!”

My skin throbbed with familiar pain that brought tears to my eyes. I had to get up, though. Whenever my father had hit me before, I always stayed down, but I wasn’t that girl anymore.

I had become a mother with a child to protect.

A woman about to marry a king, not a mafioso claiming to be a one, but the presumptive king of kings.

That made me a queen.

Now was the time for me to stand up to my father and show him I deserved the respect he’d never given me.

I got up onto my fucking feet and looked him in the eye.

He spoke before I could shape my thoughts into words.

“You’ve caused quite enough trouble, Princess, and you’ve wasted far too much of my valuable time.”

I maintained eye contact, forcing my words to spill out in an even tone, even as my legs shook.

“I have no interest in your time, Father. I understand you can’t stay and must get back to Chicago. I’m sure your grandson is happy to have met you.”

My father let out a stupid fucking chuckle while looking at his stupid fucking watch again.

“Oh, mia piccola principessa. Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re leaving with me and your brothers. You’ll tell Vignali you don’t belong to him, you’re not his wife, he has no claim, and you have a prior contract to honor. Then we’ll go home.”

Pushing my luck, I lifted my chin, hoping he could see the strength in my eyes and not the terrified little girl he’d created.

“And if I refuse to go?” I asked.

Aris intervened, flashing one of his depraved grins.

“I’ll shoot your son and his father, then drag you out by the hair. So what’s it going to be, sister? Do I get playtime?”

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